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Fostering Outdoor Observation Skills © SPIDERJESS.ORG Fostering Outdoor Fostering Observation Skills A Project of the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies’ North American Conservation Education Strategy Developed by the Pacific Education Institute Funded by a Multistate Grant of the Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program September 2011 © WONG HOCK WENG JOHN / DREAMSTIME.COM Preparing Children for Outdoor Science and Recreation Developed By Developed for Funded by a Pacific Education Institute Association of Fish and Multistate Grant of the Margaret Tudor, Ph.D. Wildlife Agencies’ Sport Fish and Wildlife Lynne Ferguson North American Restoration Program Co-Executive Directors Conservation Education Strategy Authors Karen Dvornich Diane Petersen Ken Clarkson Layout and Design: [email protected] Fostering Outdoor Observation Skills Preface State fish and wildlife agencies have invested in Conservation Education for youth and for the past 30 years, bringing resources and opportunities Experiences from Coyote to formal and informal education programs. Conservation Educators Guide engage students in an from state fish and wildlife agencies, encouraged by their agency directors area of learning that may be through the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA), worked st the oldest of all the cognitive through the first decade of the 21 Century to develop resources educators need to prepare learners to be successful in field studies, stewardship and disciplines. The closest name recreation in the natural world. modern academia offers is “field ecology.” It might also In order to prepare students for field studies, the AFWA Conservation Educators designed a series of guidelines to be used with school science be called “nature literacy”: an programs, and to add value to environmental education programs. These ability to read the “Book of guidelines are designed for teachers to provide K-12 students “real world” Nature” fluently. experiences in fish and wildlife related Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) studies. They are also designed to assist educators Nature literacy is more than in meeting The Next Generation Science Standards that bring to the the intellectual knowledge forefront contemporary sciences and their scientific methodologies. of place or the names of The first publication, Field Investigations, describes the three flowers and birds detached major scientific methodologies used by field biologists from natural from a meaningful context. resource agencies. Outdoor observation is foundational for the field It encourages students to methodologies: descriptive, comparative and correlative scientific inquiry. use all their senses in the Traditionally, outdoor observation skills are not included in science st field to understand the education. However, educators now recognize that 21 Century learning must include the ability to observe and undertake inquiry through interdependent web of life. multiple science and social science disciplines. As a result, the guidelines Nature literacy awakens for Fostering Outdoor Observation Skills are designed to prepare habits of perception (sensory students of primary school age to develop their outdoor observation skills awareness) and cultivates through demonstrations and practice in real world situations. The Pacific a rich vocabulary of search Education Institute honors the experience of fish and wildlife agencies by providing Fostering Outdoor Observation Skills guidelines for teachers to images (knowledge of place). connect children with nature, engaging their senses, their emotions and Through these, our students their cognitive capacity. connect to the natural world in a meaningful way. Margaret Tudor, Ph.D. Executive Director Pacific Education Institute iv Acknowledgments The following organizations provided support for the Fostering Outdoor Observation Skills guidelines: Sport Fish and Wildlife Restoration Program Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA) North American Conservation Education Strategy AFWA North American Conservation Education Committees K-12 Committee: Working Group: (*participating on K-12 and Working Group Committees) Carrie Morgan, Wisconsin DNR Gregg Losinski, Idaho Department of Fish and Game Leslie Burger, Mississippi State University Lucy Moreland (retired), Arkansas Game Lisa Flowers, Boone and Crockett Club and Fish Commission Mary Kay Salwey, Wisconsin DNR Judy Gillan, Florida Fish and Wildlife Michelle Kelly, Minnesota DNR Conservation Commission Natalie Elkins, Michigan DNR Judy Stokes, New Hampshire Fish and Theresa Alberici, Pennsylvania Game Game Department Commission Kevin Frailey, Michigan DNR Justin Marschell, Oklahoma Department of Cindy Etgen, Maryland DNR Wildlife Conservation Jeff Rawlinson, Nebraska Game and Parks Barb Gigar*, Iowa DNR Commission Kellie Tharp*, Arizona Game and Fish Warren Gartner, Indiana Division of Fish Commission and Wildlife Judy Silverberg*, New Hampshire Fish and Thomas Baumeister, Montana Fish, Wildlife Game Department and Parks Suzie Gilley*, Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Margaret Tudor*, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Pacific Education Institute The Pacific Education Institute and the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies are indebted to the national environmental education organizations of Project WILD, Project Learning Tree and Project WET for paving the way for K-12 environmental science education. The AFWA/ PEI environmental science process materials would not be possible without the leadership of these organizations to bring meaningful learning experiences to students. Photo Credits: Eastern screech owl by Terry L. Sobel, Great-horned owl, courtesy of NatureMapping, Western screech owl by Tim Avery, and ant mound photo courtesy of Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Laboratory of Entomology photo gallery v Fostering Outdoor Observation Skills Acknowledgments, continued. Fostering Outdoor Observation Skills is a culmination of the work of many experts and practitioners, both in the fish and wildlife professions and the formal and non-formal education professions. Thank you to all who participated in developing Fostering Outdoor Observation Skills. Teachers at the Waterville and Cle Elum-Roslyn school districts have worked with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) and The NatureMapping Program for the past fifteen years to hone the guidelines to develop outdoor observation skills, building on national and state science education standards for field science inquiry. For this work we thank Diane Peterson, fourth grade teacher, and Cathi Nelson, Principal, at Waterville School District, and Trish Griswold, eighth grade science teacher, and Mark Flatau, Superintendent, at the Cle Elum-Roslyn School District. These guidelines also grew out of the Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature (Young, Haas and McCowan, 2009) to bring field observation “core routines” to formal education. The Coyote’s Guide to Connecting with Nature (Young et. al. 2009) is a result of the Wilderness Awareness School’s 25 years of experience mentoring students in “primary” awareness and connection to nature to the formal school system Visionaries at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, including Michael O’Malley, Watchable Wildlife Program Manager, Rocky Beach, Wildlife Diversity Program Manager, and John Pierce, Chief Scientist, Wildlife Program, enabled these guidelines to evolve. A key partner is Dr. Chris Grue, Unit Leader of the Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Unit at the College of the Environment, University of Washington. The Board of Directors of the Pacific Education Institute, consisting of leaders in the formal education sector and natural resource agencies and organizations, recognized the need to provide guidelines for field studies. Their support was essential to making Fostering Outdoor Observation Skills a reality. The lion’s share of the credit goes to Karen Dvornich, National NatureMapping Director, who developed the NatureMapping guidelines for Awakening Inquiry in order to prepare citizens of all ages to conduct meaningful science for the benefit of sustaining biodiversity in their local communities. Karen collaborated on Awakening Inquiry with Diane Peterson, a 25 year veteran teacher, and Ken Clarkson, Director of the Nature Awareness Department of the Riekes Center for Human Enhancement and a former US fish and Wildlife Service refuge biologist. The NatureMapping Program, a leader in rigorous citizen science, provided AFWA with a set of methods designed to develop “essential” outdoor observation skills in young learners; Fostering Outdoor Observation Skills provides an abbreviated approach to Awakening Inquiry. For a complete approach, educators are directed to the NatureMapping Program’s Awakening Inquiry (Dvornich, Peterson and Clarkson, 2010) complete with a CD providing educators with materials and resources. Margaret Tudor, PhD. Executive Director, Pacific Education Institute vi How to Use Fostering Outdoor Observation Skills Fostering Outdoor Observation Skills prepares young learners from kindergarten to eighth grade to complete a data report form of fish, wildlife and habitat they observe in the environment. Data they collect may be contributed through a citizen science program to a professional scientist who can use the data to inform research. Fostering Outdoor Observation Skills also prepares learners for successful outdoor recreation that requires them to observe fish, wildlife and their landscape,